Ten years of arguing with books

Entries tagged with kazuo ishiguro

July 2015The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro - Faber & Faber, 2015* * *Despite not being a great fan of his previous work, I put Ishiguro's latest on my wishlist because I was intrigued by its premise. As someone who profoundly believes that memory is the key to being human, a novel about a land afflicted by a mist of forgetfulness was an intriguing proposition. I was somewhat concerned about its reported use of fantastic elements, given Ishiguro's ineptitude in providing the necessary historical and sociological underpinnings for the SF world of Never Let Me Go, but fantasy is in many respects a tougher genre to get wrong; after all, implausible or inconsistent plotting can always be waved away with a magical wand, and hackneyed tropes such as dragons, elves or vampires can be justified by giving them new allegorical meanings. Alas, despite its exploration of an interesting moral dilemma, The Buried Giant does not really work as a novel. And the reasons why are not dissimilar to those that flaw Never Let Me Go.( Read more... )

Mar 2007Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro - Faber and Faber, 2006* * * *This is going to be a peculiarly difficult review to write. On the one hand, I really want to talk about the main theme of this book because it is both interesting and profoundly relevant. On the other, I don’t want to give away exactly what it is because it might spoil the story for those who haven’t read it. I’ll do my best, but I may get it wrong. Bear with me.( Read more... )